Summary

The Australian government, livestock industry (including producers and veterinarians), media, animal welfare groups and the general public have shown a keen interest in the care and welfare of sheep, cattle and goats being exported from Australia.

Each year, the Australian livestock export industry provides a breakdown of how many sheep, cattle and goats were exported, the month that shipments left Australia, and the sea ports or airports where livestock were loaded and unloaded. This includes details of how many animals were safely delivered and how many died along the way, but does not specify the cause of death.

This project summarised the performance of the Australian livestock export industry in 2012. Sea ports in Turkey and the Black Sea have been recognised in the new category of South-East Europe rather than Miscellaneous, as the trade to the area has increased in recent years.

The performance reports provide consistent, comparable data that can be matched against previous years. This acts as a gauge of how the Australian livestock export industry is performing and encourages continued improvement.

Objective

This project provided data regarding sheep, cattle and goats exported live from Australia during 2012 by sea and air, including time of year, age and sex of the animals, and the number that died during export.

The collection of this information has enabled the long-term mapping of the Australian livestock export industry’s overall performance year on year.

Key findings

In 2012:

• There were 2.24 million sheep exported by sea. Of these, 0.81% died during the voyages, which was higher than 2011 (0.75%) .

• There were 0.62 million cattle exported by sea. Of these, 0.11% died during the voyages, which was lower than in 2011 (0.12%). There were no deaths on 41% of all cattle voyages.

• There were 64,209 goats exported by air. All were successfully delivered to their destinations, compared to 0.002% dying during flights in 2011.

• There were 635 goats exported by sea during 2012. All were successfully delivered to their destinations - the first time this has been achieved since recording began in 1993. This compared to 0.16% dying during voyages in 2011.

From this year onward, graphs and tables presenting long-term overviews will be restricted to a rolling ten-year basis, as older data does not reflect the current state of the trade.

Benefits to industry

Ongoing analysis of the performance of the Australian livestock export industry, especially in areas of key interest such as the welfare of animals, provides valuable data that enables continued improvement in management practices.

Future research and recommendations

It is recommended that this project continue to be funded and reported on an annual basis.